Hoffman's candidacy survives Democratic Party challenge

OGUNQUIT — Ogunquit's Herb Hoffman, an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, has fended off a challenge from the Maine State Democratic Party to his candidacy.

By Jim Kanak

seacoastonline.com

By Jim Kanak

Posted Jun. 26, 2008 at 2:00 AM

By Jim Kanak

Posted Jun. 26, 2008 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

OGUNQUIT — Ogunquit's Herb Hoffman, an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, has fended off a challenge from the Maine State Democratic Party to his candidacy.

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap Monday upheld his department's finding that petitions Hoffman filed to get on the ballot were valid and sufficient in number. The state's Democratic Party argued that Hoffman had not submitted a sufficient number of signatures and that there were irregularities in the manner some of the signatures were obtained.

Hoffman said he's been feeling pressure about his candidacy for some time, including communication from the campaign of Democratic candidate Tom Allen.

"Tom Allen called me to discuss what I was doing," Hoffman said. "I said it was too weighty to talk about over the phone so he said he'd have his staff set up a meeting. He never explicitly said he wanted me not to file (the petition). However it was very clear that he much preferred that I not file, that I rejoin the Democratic Party, and support his campaign."

Carol Andrews of Allen's campaign confirmed that meetings did occur. "When Mr. Hoffman told us of his intentions, we did get together to discuss (Hoffman's) concerns," she said. "He's much closer philosophically to Tom than to (Senator) Susan Collins. We had discussions a few times. We asked him to join us. Would we rather he not run? Yes. We wanted him to help us."

Hoffman shared copies of communications that reportedly had been sent to him by Democratic State Committee member Scott Ruffner and to supporters of (former Democratic Presidential candidate) Dennis Kucinich. The communications commented on Hoffman's candidacy. Hoffman was a strong Kucinich supporter prior to leaving the party to run as an independent for the Senate. Ruffner signed the letters as a "2004 Kucinich National Delegate."

Both letters discouraged Hoffman's running as an independent and asked that Hoffman's petitions to get on the ballot not be filed.

"My people weren't impressed by his arguments," Hoffman said.

During a May 28 meeting with Allen, Hoffman said Allen told him the state party would likely challenge the petitions "but that he had nothing to do with it."

The challenge was filed with the Secretary of State by John Knutson, the chairman of the state Democratic party.

"This race has the potential to be very close," party spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard said Tuesday. "The latest poll had Tom Allen within seven points of Susan Collins. The race has huge implications for the entire country. Once we reviewed Herb Hoffman's petition — which is very common to do — we saw immediate problems and decided to challenge at that point."

Among those "problems" were charges that some people had signed twice and that Hoffman "allowed others to collect signatures for him while he was not in their presence and then swear an oath saying he witnessed those same signatures," according to a written statement the party issued on June 20.

The party has five days to appeal the decision to Superior Court. In a statement commenting on Dunlap's decision, the party said they were "reviewing our options and will decide in the coming days whether or not to appeal."

"If the race comes down to a few percentage points, members of the Democratic Party would not have been well served (had we not filed a challenge)," Pollard said. "We have a few days to decide on an appeal."

Hoffman said he wouldn't guess whether there would be an appeal, but said he'd already spent a fair amount of his time on the matter.

"I've spent a minimum of 40 hours of my time," he said. "I'd guess my attorney's spent at least that much. It's been very labor intensive."